Nov. 04, 2002 - 1:33 pm
wow, i've finally crossed the mark. i now have over 200 entries in my diary since April of this year. pretty good i'd say. anyway I used my second free rental at Gemstone Video for October at the last minute on this film. it's one of those classics i saw sitting on the shelf and thought to myself, "hey, i've never seen that and you hear people talk about that film all the time, so why not pick that one up?" so i picked it up.
this movie is basically you sitting at home thinking you're watching a movie at first, but really it's more of a stage play. it's an obvious adaptation of a stage play. lots of monologues and most of it takes place in one apartment building and is shot from one side of the apartment. all done by the master of great filmmaking and contraversy, Billy Wilder.
the story behind it is that there's this middle aged everyman who's been married for seven years in New York. apparently every businessman who can afford it sends his wife and kids away for the summer to beat the heat of the inner city. at the beginning of the film, we see Mr. Sherman's family heading off on the train. he then puts his nose to the grindstone working on publishing the newest book that has been set before him by a psychiatrist-turned-author, which is about the repressed urges of the middle-aged male. the book also details a certain folly in these men called the seven year itch, at which point men begin to get a little uneasy about their marriages and begin looking to have a wild time...possibly with other women. ...enter Marilyn Monroe as "the girl."
this film is actually a comedy. i wasn't expecting a comedy. it's a farce. great stuff. Tom Ewell who plays the Sherman character is hilarious and he reminds me a lot of Jim Carrey. some parts of this are hilarious because his character has such an insane imagination. we see dream sequences of him on the beach with his wife's best friend, being attacked in a romantic way by his secretary, and being violently shot down by his wife for his infidelity.
the other aspect of this film that might not sound to appetizing is the presence of Marilyn Monroe. the truth is actually she didn't really annoy me when i was watching this. she's basically playing the part of a dumb blonde who all the men go gaga for. we're supposed to laugh at her character's stupidty and how easily she's brought in by the Sherman character who at one moment is convincing himself he shouldn't have anything to do with her, and then at the next is gawking at her like a wolf staring at a sheep. great stuff.
about all i have to say about this one is it's much better than you'd think it would be at first thought. keep in mind that it's made by Billy Wilder who was one of the best directors of this time. very intelligently done, when the industry didn't want a film about infidelity to be made.